Joe Surf: Museum to celebrate International Surfing Day

The Olympics are coming to Huntington Beach!
Well, not so fast. But it could happen, if things fall into place over the next few years.
The International Surfing Museum, based in Huntington Beach, will do its part to show that the city is interested, willing and able. As part of a yearlong celebration of its 30th anniversary, the museum will hold a special event on June 20, recognized as International Surfing Day.
The museum will celebrate the day with a “Surfing Circle of Honor,” in which 500 surfers will paddle out next to the Huntington Beach Pier to “create a circle of solidarity, to honor surfing heritage, our next generation of groms and our healthy surfing playgrounds, and celebrate surfing in the Summer Games,” according to the International Surfing Museum Executive Director Diana Dehm.
Dehm has reached out to the Guinness Book of World Records, who would be on hand to verify the world record for the biggest paddle out. The day will start with the surfers marching down Main Street to the pier. After the paddle out, the surfers will return to shore to perform another ceremony, honoring the groms to “support their future,” according to Dehm.
The 500 surfers will be selected and coordinated by “captains,” who include local surf legends like Andy Verdone, Brett Barnes, Peter “PT” Townend, Rick “Rockin’ Fig” Fignetti, Duke Aipa, Jericho Poppler, Chuy Madrigal, Bud Llamas, Don Ramsey and Dave Reynolds.
While it is a nice way to celebrate International Surfing Day, raise funds for the museum and acknowledge the debut of surfing in the 2020 Summer Games in Japan, it’s also an effort to call attention to Huntington Beach and its waves with an eyes toward 2024.
Los Angeles has put in a bid to host the Olympics in 2024, and as we saw in 1984, there were plenty of Olympic venues throughout Southern California. Hosting the annual U.S. Open of Surfing, Huntington Beach already has shown it can handle big crowds and big events.
And it wouldn’t be the first time an Olympic event was held in Orange County. In the 1984 L.A. Games, wrestling was held at the Anaheim Convention Center, the modern pentathlon was held in both Coto de Caza (shooting, fencing, equestrian, running) and Irvine (swimming), handball was held at Cal State Fullerton, and cycling (road race) was held on the streets of Mission Viejo.
Dehm and Huntington Beach Mayor Barbara Delgleize have reached out to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office regarding the 2024 Games.
“We are offering support,” Dehm said. “We do believe Huntington Beach is the ‘plug and play’ needed if the Olympic Committee needs a location for the Summer Games in 2024. We can house thousands of people, we’ve got a beautiful location walking distance to the beach. We are literally ‘plug and play’ with no infrastructure required. And we’ve got a huge generation of surfers here, the next generation of surfers, and legends right here. It really is in my eyes the perfect place. We’re Surf City USA for a reason.
“We’d be happy to be the world’s surfing village.”
KEEPING UP WITH KANOA
Results were mixed for Huntington Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi in the first two World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) events of the season.
The 2017 season started last month in Australia, but Igarashi failed to win a heat in the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, his equal-25th place finish the worst of young CT career. Last season he won at least one heat in all 11 CT contests and never finished below equal-13th in any contest before finishing the season ranked No. 20 in the world.
Igarashi did a little better in the second CT contest, the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro in Western Australia. He finished equal-13th, which included a Round 2 heat victory over three-time world champion Mick Fanning.
“That’s what the Tour is about, surfing against your heroes and guys you have looked up to your whole life,” Igarashi told worldsurfleague.com. “But you have to switch it, realize they are not heroes in heats and smash ’em.”
The third CT event of the season — the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach — is set to get underway this week, the final contest of the Australian leg of the tour before they move on to Brazil next month.
COURT IS IN SESSION
Santa Ana’s Courtney Conlogue has finished second in the world in each of the past two years, but she’s off to a relatively slow start in the first two contests of the women’s CT.
Conlogue finished equal-ninth and equal-fifth in the first two events in Australia. Aussie’s Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons currently are tied for first in the world rankings.